We’re looking back at this amazing year for Scientology watchers, and over the next several days we’re going to refresh your memory about what got our attention in 2012.
Of course, one of the things that made this year so memorable was the level of involvement of our commenting community, and we hope you have plenty to say as we look back at the stories that mattered in the past twelve months.
As March began, the Debbie Cook lawsuit in San Antonio was still going gangbusters — that first week, Scientology filed for summary judgment against her, and her attorney, Ray Jeffrey, pushed for discovery.
But that month is also known for the holiest day on the Scientology calendar: L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday on March 13! And this year, as Ron was floating around the galaxy somewhere, his followers celebrated the 101st anniversary of the birth of his meat body with a big party in Clearwater. In April, we were leaked a video of that event, and we had loads of fun with its tall tales about Hubbard and his exploits.
We’re looking back at this amazing year for Scientology watchers, and over the next several days we’re going to refresh your memory about what got our attention in 2012.
Of course, one of the things that made this year so memorable was the level of involvement of our commenting community, and we hope you have plenty to say as we look back at the stories that mattered in the past twelve months.
On February 9, one of the most remarkable single days Scientology has ever spent in a courtroom took place down in San Antonio, Texas.
We were there, and provided live coverage as former church executive Debbie Cook testified about how she had been treated in Scientology’s notorious office-prison, known as “the Hole.”
It’s time to look back at this amazing year for Scientology watchers, and over the next several days we’re going to refresh your memory about what got our attention in 2012.
Of course, one of the things that made this year so memorable was the level of involvement of our commenting community, and we hope you have plenty to say as we look back at the stories that mattered in the past twelve months.
January sure started with a bang this year. At midnight, we put up a primer about Scientology that we’d been working on for weeks, then sat back to sip a bit of champagne to bring in the new year. Minutes later, our e-mail inbox started going crazy. Our regular tipsters were peppering us with messages — had we seen the mindblowing letter that just went out to thousands of Scientologists from a former executive named Debbie Cook?
In an Underground Bunker exclusive, we’re giving you the first look at two slick videos shot and assembled by Tiziano Lugli and numerous other former members of the Church of Scientology. Among those you’ll see are video blogger Tory Christman, former church spokesman Mike Rinder, and character actor Michael Fairman. Also taking part was Jenna Miscavige Hill, niece of Scientology leader David Miscavige, who has a memoir coming out next month. (Also, a few actors helped out — hey, it’s Hollywood.)
With the year winding down, we thought we’d ask several fellow Scientology watchers to give us their thoughts on how the church fared in 2012. Here are their responses, and we’re looking forward to reading your reflections about 2012 in the comments. Tell us what were your highlights, and how you think 2012 fits in the 60-year history of the church.
First up, BBC journalist John Sweeney, who has a book coming out on January 7, The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology.
We’re working on several interesting new stories that will take some time to complete. In the meantime, we wanted to keep you tided over with this great blast from the past.
It’s a 1997 UK Channel 4 documentary about L. Ron Hubbard that resurfaced recently over at the Ex-Scientologist Message Board.
Much of our coverage of Scientology in the past three years has focused on former church executive Marty Rathbun, and for good reason.
Rathbun is the most visible member of an “independence movement” that is splitting Scientology apart. He has participated in or masterminded several of the biggest legal and media offensives against church leader David Miscavige. And he has also been the target of some of the strangest and most outrageous retaliation in the history of Scientology’s well-earned reputation for vengeance.
But, as we’ve pointed out many times, there is an essential contradiction in Rathbun’s current role as the Church of Scientology’s biggest critic: Before he was the target of the church’s legendary retaliation machine, he was the man at its helm.
Perhaps no other piece has taken on that paradox like Joel Sappell’s masterful new story — his first on Scientology in some twenty years — which appears this morning in Los Angeles magazine.
One of our highlights of 2012 was getting to know Joel Sappell, the former Los Angeles Times journalist who, with his partner Robert Welkos, produced a series of blockbuster Scientology investigations in the late 1980s, culminating in their giant 1990 series about the church.
We lived in Los Angeles at the time, and can still remember the billboards that the church put up in retaliation.
We were reminiscing about that with Joel earlier this year when he told us he had an idea for a new story, and could we put him in touch with former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun? We were happy to help, and boy, does it look like it paid off.
Joel told us that Rathbun’s defection made him wonder, all these years after Rathbun was the church’s chief enforcer, if he could now fill in some details about the kind of harassment that Sappell and Welkos went through when their stories were coming out.
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Chief among those incidents was the apparent poisoning of Sappell’s dog.
Pity poor PIX 11 reporter Hilary Whittier, who had to put together one of those cloying, cliche-filled pieces in the wake of the Newtown massacre, the kind of thing where shell-shocked locals are interviewed talking about hope and prayers in the face of tragedy.
Near the end of her report, Whittier wants to give an example of what locals are doing to comfort each other, and she holds up a pamphlet, The Way to Happiness, that “people” were handing out.
She was apparently unaware that the pamphlet is a classic come-on from the Church of Scientology, which has quickly descended on Newtown to exploit the mass murder.
New Year’s Eve is one of the biggest days in the Scientology calendar. The church really pulls out the stops with a big party, and then urges members — and their wallets — to attend. What fun!
And this year, the event is coming early! As you’ll see in our weekly collection of Scientology fundraising mailers, an interesting date has been set for the church’s worldwide party welcoming in 2013.
So join us as we look at the items our tipsters sent us this week.
We’re looking back at this amazing year for Scientology watchers, and over the next several days we’re going to refresh your memory about what got our attention in 2012.
